Production Journal – Kid vs Kat

And I’m still a lazy ass about my posts because I have made yet another video post. Even though it took me three attempts. My apologies to the folks with slow internet. I tried to keep it short, but I rambled, so it ended up at almost eight minutes.

Sorry.

If you can’t watch it easily, here’s the readers digest version:
– I survived my first Kid vs Kat board (barely).
– My blogoversary is this week! My online baby is two years old (yikes!).
– And I’m switching software from Sketchbook Pro to Flash for various reasons. I’ll report back how that went.

I also said that if you have any requests for blog post ideas, just throw them in the comments. Because my slight writer’s block continues. I guess my brain can only handle a few things at time.

But I hope videos will suffice for the time being.

Because look! I have another stupid expression on my face! (I give up. Truly.) And in case you noticed, yes I throw the same black shirt on for shooting these videos. Rest assured I do, in fact, own other shirts.

Yes, I’m kinda busy with that ‘work thing’ and all. (Damn that rent and eating thing!) But I figured something out. Like in my Mini Critiques where I’d rather record my feedback to an MP3 than write it out, I’m going to do the same here. Better some kind of post than no post, right?

Plus, you get to mock me in the process.

So I present to you: a new video post!

And look! I have another stupid expression on my face. *sigh*

It’s kind of long (almost ten minutes) so those of you with slow internet connections should go clean your toilet (you know you need to) and come back when it’s cued up.

I talk of working on Kid vs Kat, the new (oooo…ahhh) Cintiq I have and my own stupidity.

Oh, and those of you on the fabulous Storyboard Club Mailing List (see sidebar) will be getting your own little video early next week in the newsletter thingy. No, it won’t be posted on the blog. Sorry!

Rob continues his discussion about storyboarding, but now from the role of being a director. You get to hear it from ‘the other side’, so this is valuable stuff.

Then a little about what to do with your own brilliant ideas.

Read, learn and enjoy.

Take it away, Rob.

11. Looking from the other side of the desk as a director, what would you say are the 3 most important skills a storyboard artist can have to make *your* job easier?

Number one is an understanding of story structure.

Scenes are not just thrown randomly throughout a script – they’re placed in a particular order to move the characters and action forward (or backward in some cases).

The more understanding you have of how and why the pieces are put together, the better storyboard artist you’ll become. (Although it can be a dry read at times and is geared much more toward writers, I would suggest getting a copy of Robert McKee’s “Story”. Or attend one of his lectures if you have the money or time to do so.)

Number two is clarity of expression.

I don’t mean expression on a character’s face, but expression of scene.

Once you figure out what the intent of the scene is, ask yourself “what’s the simplest, clearest way to express this?” Your composition, camera angles and cutting should all be an answer to that question.

You want to keep things interesting visually, but don’t get caught up with fancy angles and camera work that do nothing but confuse the intent of the scene!

Here is Part 1 of my interview with Kid vs Kat creator Rob ‘Boots’ Boutilier. You can catch more info about my role in storyboarding on the show in my Kid vs Kat intro post.

Lucky for my lazy ass, Rob was indeed wonderfully ‘long-winded’ in his answers. Lots of good, juicy stuff! So for ease of reading, I’m going to break it up into three posts.

The second will be on Friday, February 13th (because it’s my birthday and I want a stamp of ’13 Feb’ on the blog). And so you don’t have a to wait a full week for the next one.

Then the last one will be up next week.

So let’s get this ball rolling!

1. Let’s start with all that great, boring stuff about you. Tell us about your background, education and why you got started in the animation business.

I started drawing at an early age with only one goal in mind: I wanted to create a daily comic strip and become the next Charles Schulz.

I started being published when I was eleven, with local and college papers following as I grew older, but since I was completely self taught up to that point I thought I needed to improve myself by taking some kind of drawing course.

Animation seemed a natural fit for me so when I was 25, I packed up and moved from Halifax to Vancouver to take an intensive classical animation course at the Vancouver Film School.

I figured animation would be something I’d just do during the day while I developed comic strip ideas at night. I thought I’d only be in the industry for about 5 years, then move on to something else.

Over 13 years later, it didn’t quite turn out that way.

2. How about a brief summary of Kid vs Kat?

Kid vs Kat is about a 10 year old boy named Coop whose idyllic life is turned completely upside-down when his younger sister brings home a stray cat of mysterious origin.

It’s obvious to Coop that the cat is some kind of alien and is up to no good, but nobody else seems to see it.

As a storyboard artist, you work and slave on a show that you probably won’t see on TV for about a year. Not exactly a good job for people who like immediate gratification.

Well, that time has arrived!

Kid vs Kat is now airing in Canada on YTV. I’ll give you all the details at the end of the post.

What’s really cool is the show was created by a buddy of mine, Rob ‘Boots’ Boutilier. We basically started our careers around the same time and cut our storyboarding teeth together on the first season of ‘Ed, Edd ‘n Eddy’.

I’m pretty anal about brushing the eraser shavings off my desk. So he used to put his eraser shavings all over my desk to piss me off.

Good times.

As it turns out, he’s still talking to the ‘little people’ and has agreed to be my very first interview here on the Storyboard Blog. That interview will be the next post. Maybe two, depending if he is long-winded or not in answering my questions.

Being the lazy ass that I am, I’m hoping for long-winded.

So stay tooned for that!

(That’s a typo, but I’m keeping it.)

In the meantime, I’ll show you some screen grabs from one of my episodes. I’ve put my storyboard panels along with them for your viewing pleasure.

Not just Hell Week, but my contract. Six and a half months, five episodes, 1100 pages producing 3300 panels…approximately.

I’m pooped. But I think (I hope) I did an alright job.

If I ‘leave the environment’ while I’m working, it’s real hard to get back in the groove. So I didn’t. I only left the apartment about once a week. I had groceries delivered. My laundry usually consisted of sweat pants and t-shirts. My computer and this blog were my few links to the outside world. I’m grateful for it and for you guys reading. It really helped keep me motivated.

So for that, I thank you.

I am now officially unemployed.

When you freelance, you can’t collect unemployment insurance. So I ain’t. Did I mention that before? Well, you can’t. You’re on your own.

The industry around here is looking pretty darn slow. The word ‘drought’ was mentioned with a colleague the other day. A work drought. Nice.